Manchester United 2 - Deportivo La Coruña 0

Man Utd: Barthez; Gary Neville, Brown, O'Shea (Forlan 81'), Silvestre; Phil Neville (Beckham 81'), Verón, Scoles, Giggs, Solksjaer, Van Nistelroy (Richardson 89'). 4-4-2.
Deportivo: Juanmi; Scaloni, César, Romero, Capdevila; Sergio, Mauro Silva; Víctor (Luque 75'), Valerón (Toro Acuña 65'), Amavisca (Diego Tristán 46'); Makaay. 4-3-2-1.

Goals:
1-0. 07. Van Nistelroy. Headed wide of Juanmi from Scholes cross.
2-0. 55. Van Nistelroy. Bundled ball in after Solksjaer pulled back from by-line.

Deportivo La Coruña could not repeat last year's victory at Old Trafford, and they are now struggling to survive in the competition after only picking up one point in their first two matches in the second phase. Irureta had gambled for this game bringing back Valerón for his first full game since his long injury, but he did not appear to be fully match fit and was replaced by Acuña in the second half. The manager was also missing Fran, who went down with flu before the game, veteran midfielder Amavisca replacing him, and Romero kept his place in the centre of defence with so many defenders unavailable. On the opposite bench Sir Alex Ferguson was missing Beckham and his first choice defenders Campbell and Blanc, with Brown and O'Shea covering at the back and Phil Neville playing on the right.

Manchester United took the lead in the seventh minute when Van Nistelrooy rose above two defenders to head a Scholes cross wide of Juanmi, and the Dutch striker got the ball in the net twice either side of half time only to see the goals ruled out, the first for a foul and the second for offside. Deportivo's only reply was a shot from Víctor which Barthez tipped over the bar, and Irureta brought on Diego Tristán at the break to try and turn the game around. The Spanish international striker felt he should have had a penalty soon after coming on after O'Shea brought him down in the area, but Norwegian referee Terje Hauge turned down his appeal.

Soon afterwards Barthez made an important save from Makaay as Depor came forward, but the English side scored again after Juanmi had saved from Scholes, Van Nistelroy bundling the ball into the net after Solksjaer laid the ball back from the by-line. Irureta tried a last throw of the dice, bringing on a third forward Luque to join Makaay and Tristán, but the Gallicians were lucky not to concede a penalty when Scaloni brought down Giggs in the area. Manchester United go top of the group with six points, and with Juventus on four, Depor now really need to pick up maximum points from their next two games with Basel to have a real chance of reaching the quarter finals.